My pain was barely half of what it was when I had walked in

When I first met Jim Stegenga about five years ago, I was having severe pain in my back - one of those weird twists of fate that serves to grab your attention up and re-examine your premises. The pain was so intense that I was literally immobilized, unable to get out of bed without the aid of some synthetic poppy pills. I was completely naïve to the concept of acupuncture being helpful in a situation such as mine. Acting on the tip of a friend of mine, I decided to give Jim a try. As an emergency physician who has seen many people over the years with similar symptoms, I was painfully aware that my brand of medicine had little to offer in terms of true healing. The best I could manage to offer was to help someone lessen the pain while the body healed itself. I knew that this process often took weeks. I didn't have weeks--I was scheduled to work the next three nights in a row. I readily admit that I approached acupuncture with some degree of skepticism. Although I was vaguely aware of its long history of its use in Asia, acupuncture was but another 'alternative' therapy in this country, somehow tainted by my bias against those treatments not well explained by Western objectivism. Somehow, the intensity of the pain acted as a catalyst to move me beyond my narrow healing paradigm. Jim sat down with me and immediately gained my trust. He was honest, unassuming, and put me at ease with his gentle manner. Although he admitted that there was no easy explanation for how his methods worked, he was optimistic that, based on his experience, that he could help me. I struggled to climb onto his treatment table and let him do his art. I was fascinated by the process. Over the next hour, Jim inserted twenty or thirty needles at unusual locations on my body with no obvious connection to my back. The needles were so tiny that I didn't even feel most them go in. When it came time to get off the table, I was very pleasantly surprised: my pain was barely half of what it was when I had walked in. I went on to work the next three nights with only minimal discomfort. Within five days, I was pain free-with no further treatments! If that was the end of the story, it would be impressive. Unfortunately, I have had three recurrent episodes of severe back spasm since that time. Each time, Jim has been extremely accommodating and I've been able to see him within a day or two. Each time I have had similar helpful results after only two or three treatments. Although I still don't really understand why it works, acupuncture has certainly been helpful for me. I have referred a number of patients to Jim, many of whom have gotten similar relief as I did. If you have a condition that you would like to try to treat with acupuncture, I would highly recommend Jim Stegenga as someone to discuss it with." Disclaimer: results may vary from person to person